Recidivism among the mentally ill has been the focus of many investigations. Early work on the severity of symptoms and more recent research on patient's social role performance have not yielded significant predictors. In fact, many contradictions have emerged. What appears to have been neglected is the area of symptomatology itself, viewed not in diagnostic terms, but as social stimuli to which both patient and family react. Within the framework of our ecological approach, we view hospitalization as a function of both patient and family variables, and their interaction. Two hundred schizophrenics and a collateral family member will be interviewed prior to the patient's discharge regarding tolerance of symptomatology, attitudes towards hospitalization and expectations of patient's behavior. Specific predictions are made relating these variables to number of past hospitalizations and to recidivism. Our major hypothesis is that patient and family tolerance for the patient's symptomatology will be related to the use of hospitalization as the preferred mode of dealing with the mentally ill. This will be particularly true if positive attitudes towards the hospital are held. In addition, we hypothesize that with increasing experiences of hospitalization, attitudes to the hospital, symptom tolerance and behavior will become more concordant, and that agreement between patient and family on these measures will increase.